Instructions

How to Make Fresh Mint Iced Coffee

We’re breaking this one down into three stages: making the cold brew, making the syrup, and making the Fresh Mint Iced Coffee.

If you don’t have cold brew already made, this one is going to take a while, so plan accordingly!

Ingredients

The Cold Brew (and Coffee Cubes...)

2 cups room temperature water

57 grams of coffee

Cup of coffee (optional)

The Fresh Mint Syrup

¾ cup of fresh mint leaves (roughly one large bunch of them)

1 vanilla bean (scraped)

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

Other items:

A glass

Saucepan

Whisk

Mason jar with lid

Mesh strainer

Filter

Ice cube tray (optional)

Method

Making the Cold Brew and Coffee Cubes

Grind the coffee at a very coarse grind setting, so that it almost resembles breadcrumbs.

Next, add the coarsely-ground coffee and room temperature water to the Mason jar. Make sure to stir it up well so that all of the grounds are wet. Screw on the lid.

Let the jar sit for at least 12 hours.

Once the cold brew is ready, use the mesh strainer to remove the bulk of the grounds. Then use the paper filter to further strain the mixture. You should be left with a pure, cold brew concentrate that’s ready to use in your Fresh Mint Iced Coffee!

Make your coffee cubes. Just brew a cup of coffee, let it cool off, pour it into an ice cube tray, and pop it in the freezer!

Extra Notes:

If you want a more thorough breakdown on how to prep cold brew using this method, you can find it here. However, there are many other ways to make cold brew, too!

The longer you let the cold brew sit, the stronger it will taste. Consider making two identical batches and leaving them for different lengths of time (e.g. one for 12 hours, and one for 24) to get a good taste test of the difference.

You’ll want to use some sort of frozen cube in this recipe, so you can technically just use ice. But who wants to water down their drink with ice when you can have some coffee cubes instead?

Making the Fresh Mint Syrup

Add the sugar, water, ¾ cup of fresh mint leaves, and the scraped vanilla bean to the saucepan.

Bring the pan to a slow boil over medium heat, while whisking it steadily until the sugar dissolves. Once it reaches a boil, turn off the heat and let it cool.

Put the mixture into the fridge and let it sit overnight.

Once it has cooled overnight, strain out the mint leaves and vanilla bean pod, if desired. However, you can also choose to leave them in the mixture to continue steeping.

Extra Notes:

After you’ve scraped the vanilla bean, add both the scraped vanilla bean caviar and the pod into the saucepan. Both will add some sweet flavoring to the concoction!

The syrup should keep well in the fridge for around a week.

Making the Fresh Mint Iced Coffee

Begin by filling your glass to your desired level with either coffee cubes, ice cubes, or a combination of both.

Drizzle the syrup over the cubes.

Pour the cold brew in over the syrup.

Whether you’re using half and half or milk, now’s the time to add it in!Stir up the mixture.

Finally, add a few fresh mint leaves to give the drink a heavenly flair.

Extra Notes:

As with most syrups, the quantity prescribed here is adjustable. Start with a minimal amount, as you can always add more if desired!

Cold Brew vs. Iced Coffee

Now, this recipe was inspired by this article from howsweeteats.com, so we went ahead and kept the name “Fresh Mind Iced Coffee,” but let’s clarify one thing here: cold brew and iced coffee are not the same thing. In this recipe we are using cold brew, not iced coffee.

Cold brew is a long process that results in a distinct drink that is smooth, low in acidity, and has a prolonged caffeine kick. Iced coffee is easy to make, but really it’s just ice cubes in hot coffee. So, while the recipe is categorized as “iced coffee”, if you just toss some ice cubes in your left over coffee from the morning and whip this one up, you’ll most likely be disappointed. Instead, you’ll want the smooth, delicious cold brew taste to maximize this drink’s potential.

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